Bonnie + Dan: A Wedding Festival

“Sometimes there is a love you can’t describe, a love that embraces every element of a relationship with so much passion that when you sit down and begin to write about it, you are simply left speechless. Out of all of my days, the day my son walked me down the aisle to marry his father, my love, was truly one of the most soul-touching moments of my life. Our day was like no other, we felt a love like never before and spent our night under the stars in what felt like a dream.”

This one’s a special story for us. Our dear Bonnie, creator and entrepreneur of MBL Makeup, and editorial intern here at WHITE got to marry the man of her dreams. (No, she’s not writing this today!) We caught her in the midst of her busy schedule for some words and sooo want to shed a little more light on the details for you.

As a little bit of context, Bonnie and Dan actually grew up together and in Bonnie’s words he was the older surfy guy that she always swooned over, “I’m talking like – primary school crush.” And, things obviously worked out in Bonnie’s favour – these two got together, and began embracing adventures like there’s no tomorrow.

What’s one of the special ways you and Dan spend time together?

Bonnie: One of our favourite things to do is to just pack up the car and drive – to just get away. No accommodation, and we just roll with whatever happens, ending up wherever. Dan also loves to teach me how to surf – even though I can’t, he insists. Surfing was always “his” thing. The day I found out I was pregnant he was teaching me how to surf in the morning at the beach our son is now named after, Morna.

Tell us a little about Morna.

He is our love and our life, all my stars and all my moons! He made our wedding and makes our marriage even more meaningful. Not many people can say their son walked them down the aisle. He was born a Mooney, so when I married Dan, I took on my son’s name too. We were ready for a family, we knew we were going to be together forever, and when Dan did propose, it made it really feel like Dan was choosing me: to marry me, rather than doing it because we had Morna. It wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing – he was in love with me and married me for who I was.

What does marriage mean to you?

It’s a difficult one to explain as I feel like as the years go on, different elements will change. For me now, it means growing together. It’s a life-long commitment you make to spend the rest of your lives together, but at the same time it’s a commitment to grow together and to constantly build your relationship because it’s never going to stay at the same level. There’s always ups and downs but it’s a commitment to stick by each other regardless, to love wholeheartedly and to move mountains as one.

What do you love most about Dan?

He completely balances me. Without him, I would not be who I am, nor would I get anything done. He’s the most incredible, selfless father. He has a quality in him that allows him to be Morna’s best friend, his father and like his brother all in one, which obviously just makes me melt and fall in love with him so much more.

How did your wedding day pan out?

I work at weddings every weekend doing hair and makeup or singing, I am used to seeing the usual flow of them. Traditional weddings are beautiful, I just wanted our wedding to reflect Dan and I. To give you an idea, we had no formalities other than the service itself, where I had my two brothers and son walk me down the aisle. We had ten bridesmaids, and eleven groomsmen. We had amazing live music and one of my closest friends whipped out his DJ gear from the car as a spur of the moment thing, so we had him playing in Jerome’s breaks. We had the incredible owners of Wonganella Estate sipping celebratory champagne with us and most importantly the people who mean the world to us, by our side, partying and enjoying every single minute with us.

As for the rest of the wedding, we had no first dance, no “break” for photos. No cake cutting. It was literally just a party. Our guests said it felt like they were at a festival – we couldn’t have wanted anything more!